Hi people,
it was a pretty hard month and we are still fighting for success with Wind of Luck project.
Recently, we held a meeting with our may-be funding source, had some good promises, hard time and a complete change in marketing strategy.
After counting our resources and studying the market situation, we agreed that we will release WoL "in two steps".

First, we will finish "battle part" and release free-to-play MMO "Wind of Luck: Arena", where players can fight Team vs Team (something like 5v5, 7v7, 12v12) in several "arenas".

In 6-8 months past release of WoL: Arena, with new funding source, we plan to hire additional staff and finish main WoL project (with name of something like "WoL:Pirates").

As for WoL:Arena - Ships will be partially upgradeable, with equipment and crew, and there will be some progression from smallest boats to 1-rate ships. players will earn fame and money in each battle and spend it to research and buy new ships, cannons and equipment. I.e. in "Asian" tree there will be like 9 tiers of ships starting from Hokulea and finishing in some really huge vessels like legendary Treasure Ship of Zheng He fleet.
Yes, it means that we will need to completely rebalance ships for WoL: Arena but it seems like the only way to make the game finally live.